Discussion thread for the "Polls only" thread (Part 1)

I don’t consider fear and phobia to be synonymous. I have a healthy and reasonable fear of many things in the proper circumstances. I don’t have any unreasonable debilitating fears.

I’ve never eaten (or even been) in a Cracker Barrel, so I voted the “what game” option.

Statistically, the majority of people envenomated by snakes are people who don’t like snakes and were attempting to kill/move the animal.

Is there a cite for that? It’s such a specific statistic.

According to the WHO, worldwide, agricultural workers and kids are “the most affected”. For agricultural workers, it seems like it just might be people coming across them in fields?

Good question. I’ve seen it stated by various herpetology folks. I’ll see if I can find a true source with documentation.

ETA:

On average, there are fewer than 1900 overall animal-related deaths in the country each year; bee and wasp stings and dog attacks account for a majority while snakes only account for 5-6 deaths each year. Most of these accidents occur at home with captive pets and in backyard encounters. Further, the majority of wild bites occur when the person is attempting to harass, kill or handle the snake. White males and young adults (18-28 years old) are the most frequently bitten demographic.

From : https://srelherp.uga.edu/snakes/snake-safety.htm

Most that I see are anecdotal statements like this.

I’ve been to a cracker barrel at least once, but don’t remember it having any games. That being said, i have a pretty good guess what the game is. So i didn’t answer the poll.

I’ve been to a Cracker Barrel maybe twice. The puzzle isn’t exclusive to Cracker Barrel and I certainly saw it long before my first visit.

I had a friend with one when I was a kid, and got to the point where I could win it consistently. But I’ve forgotten how to win

The translator poll: I translate it verbatim. As for the misinformation, that’s what footnotes are for.

@kayaker’s cite refers to the United States (if I’m interpreting it correctly); so it may well depend on where you’re talking about.

I’ve been in a few Cracker Barrels over the years, but never noticed the peg game there, although I am familiar with the game and beat it several times as a kid.

The word “literally” gave me pause, since translations should be coherent. A literal translation of ‘Bob’s your uncle’ into French makes no sense.

Factual errors are up to the editor, and it’s quite possible that a novel could require a 39,000’ Everest for the story.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez could tell me that mixing blood types is the best way to rid a population of vestigial tails and I wouldn’t bat an eye. :slight_smile:

Yes, I had a similar thought.

Gosh, I’m so used to “literally” being used as a filler word that I didn’t even process it when it was used for its actual intended definition.

This. Editing, copy editing, proofreading, and translating are all different jobs. I’ll do the job I was hired for and not someone else’s.

ditto

Yup. Further, the person who hired me might be interested in the errors. That could be the purpose of translation, for all I know.

I had a much more difficult issue when I did some work for “recordings for the blind”, where the job is to read a text book aloud and verbally describe illustrations and graphs. Sometimes the textbooks have errors. The organization is clear that volunteers are supposed to read what is there with no annotations about errors of fact. One friend said that he selectively described a diagram in a math text so as to not mention the part that was impossible, while including the part that was relevant to.

I would never dream of touching or trying to kill any snake I encountered in the wild. I have willingly touched snakes, including some damn big ones, in safe conditions in wildlife-encounter classes and whatnot, and kinda liked it (the skins have interesting texture, and it’s cool to feel the musculature just underneath). My former brother-in-law used to have a decent-sized boa constrictor as a pet. Once, when he was cleaning its cage, he draped it around his torso. It started squeezing him and he extricated himself only with some difficulty. Scared the bejeebers out of him.

If I were translating something and came across obvious errors, I’d bring them to the attention of the editor but not unilaterally make corrections myself.

My mom could speak pretty good Pig Latin but I never picked up the knack.

I’ve been in Cracker Barrel restaurants a few times over the years and played the peg game. I got close but don’t think I ever won it.

This is kinda what I thought. I didn’t see an answer similar to that so I didn’t answer the poll.

I was never fluent in ubbi dubbi, but for the year I commuted via the 70 bus to Watertown and passed WGBH every day, there in the 02134, I often hummed the zip code.

Thanks to Zoom I still get a little, secret thrill every time I see the WBGH logo. I also know (one of the PO ZIP Codes of Boston, Mass 02134.

I was an adult when the show came on, and I got hooked on it.